September 2008 Issue

Another Opening, Another Show
Look again. You just might catch a glimpse of them waiting in the wings: Katharine Hepburn listening for her cue to enter in “The Philadelphia Story”; Bela Lugosi preparing to make his mark in “Dracula”; Humphrey Bogart breathing deeply before taking a comedic turn for “Saturday’s Children.” These star-studded moments in Cleveland history belong to the Hanna Theatre, renowned for the shows that have graced its stage over the past 87 years. This month, another ch...

mesh
One of the most talked-about, best-reviewed restaurants to open recently in Southwest Ohio is nestled in the ever-developing terrain of Warren County along Interstate 75. It’s mesh — they prefer the lower-case spelling — and when I mentioned an upcoming visit to two different friends, they both said nearly the same thing: “Oh, it’s very good. It’s expensive, but it’s very, very good.” They were right: mesh invites higher-than-average expectations on the st...

Party with the Pawpaw
Ask an Ohioan if he or she has ever tried a pawpaw, and you’ll likely be met with a puzzled look, or a curious “What’s that?” Though pawpaw trees have thrived in Appalachian Ohio for thousands of years, they are one of the state’s most hidden — and tastiest — treasures. Chris Chmiel, an organizer of the Ohio Pawpaw Festival, now in its 10th year, is on a mission to educate the public about North America’s largest edible native tree fruit, often referred to...

Sweet Dreams
Raea Palmieri wasn’t entirely happy when her family moved from their suburban Cleveland home last spring. It didn’t matter that the new house was right next door — the 9-year-old simply didn’t want to give up her bedroom, a sunny space featuring a vine-covered playhouse with a shingled roof, shuttered windows, Dutch door and picket fence built along one entire wall. So her interior-designer mother, Libby Palmieri, sweetened the deal: She proposed decorating Raea’s new room ...

A Black and White Issue
He’s cute. He’s cuddly. He’s willing to recline in your lap while you’re sitting on the couch. He’s a ... skunk? Lest you scoff, Deborah Cipriani is quick to add that they make the best kind of pets. “What’s not to like about skunks?” she says. “They use a litter box, they’re smart, and one look at them keeps burglars away.” The North Ridgeville resident’s devotion to the oft-avoided mammal led her to found SkunkHaven eight years ag...

A Taste of Honey
When it comes to caring about the environment, Dawn and Carson Combs do more than recycle plastic and newspapers. Three years ago, they created Mockingbird Meadows Honey and Herb Farm in Marysville. The couple, who share their farm with bees, ducks, chickens and a goat, grow fruits, vegetables and herbs the biodynamic way –– enriching the soil with organic matter so that what it produces is more nutritious. “Biodynamics looks at the farm as a complete circle,” Dawn explains. R...

Frontier Drama
More than 250 years ago, when our state was a wild frontier, a spot northeast of Piqua was the fault line between two massive geopolitical forces — France and England, which began playing out their dreams of world dominion in the distant forests of Ohio. Today, that field along the Great Miami River is quiet and still, dotted with rolled hay bales and a full mile from the nearest historical marker that explains the bloody clash that happened here. This was the site of a large Miami Indian village ...

Modern Day Audubon
If the sight of a 10-year-old boy carrying a .22-caliber rifle and sketch pad concerned other passengers on the Cincinnati streetcar, they never mentioned it to him. After all, it was 1934, the height of the Great Depression. And if the boy with the mop of hair and big smile returned home from his adventures near the Ohio River with a brace of rabbits, more power to him. The sketchpad may have puzzled the passengers a bit more. Whatever he hunted or fished or observed, the boy wanted to draw. Nat...

Seeing the Light
Long a symbol of strength and safety, the lighthouse is also providing a beacon of hope and beauty in northwest Ohio. Throughout the summer, Sandusky has hosted “A Light in the Harbor,” an art project comprising 28 resin lighthouse replicas, each decorated by a local artisan and showcased throughout the city. On September 18, the works will be auctioned off for good causes: Proceeds will benefit the Firelands chapter of the American Red Cross; United Way of Erie County; and the Merry-Go-Roun...

Time Served
Overfilled squirt bottles sloshed around in a pool of barbecue sauce at the bottom of my bus tub. With each stair I climbed, the bottles slammed into one other and bounced back to their respective corners, sumo-wrestler-style, spraying sauce like sweat in every direction. It was 10 a.m. on the Sunday before Memorial Day in 2001, just over a year after I graduated from college. My uniform, a pair of dark jeans and a T-shirt emblazoned with a pig, was already dirty — and I still had at least 12 hour...

Epicurean Adventure
Think of Amish Country, and the usual images come to mind — pastoral settings, handcrafted furniture and life that seems to pass at an enviably slower pace. Gourmet food, however, doesn't usually nudge out comfort foods for a spot on this list. At least, it didn't. But these days Amish country is finding its niche with the food-savvy set as a place to source choice ingredients and hard-to-find spices at prices that trump your local gourmet shop. Fueled by the continued popularity of the green move...

Tip of the Month
Everyone needs to work in a restaurant, at least for a little while. It will make you a better person. And it certainly will make you a better customer — more sensitive, more polite, more generous. My personal experience as a restaurant worker occurred in high school, when I was a busboy in the coffee shops at a couple of “motor hotels” in the suburbs of Cleveland. The memories of that experience came flooding back like a glass of spilled milk after reading Jessica Esemplare’s co...